"Britain is now harbouring a menacing enemy within"

In the run up to the 6th anniversary of the 2003 Anglo-American invasion of Iraq, the British tabloid press is indulging in a barrage of vitriol. Below, you can find a compilation of selected items.

Daily Star, 11 March 2009

Sun, 11 March 2009

Daily Express, 11 March 2009

Daily Mail, 11 March 2009

Independent, 25 February 2009

http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/ourcomments/view/88777/Britain-is-now-harbouring-a-menacing-enemy-within

Britain is now harbouring a menacing enemy within

leading article, Daily Express, 11 March 2009

For British troops returning home after risking their lives in the cause of bringing democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan to face abuse from Islamic demonstrators in Luton is a sickening development.

The men of the Royal Anglian Regiment kept their cool in the face of demonstrators who branded them "cowards, killers and extremists". [...]

British Army commanders have spoken of finding themselves fighting British Muslims in Afghanistan - a "mini civil war", one called it. On current trends, that civil war will soon be waged on the home front, too. [...]

Most British Muslims mean their non-Muslim neighbours no harm. But it is becoming increasingly clear that a substantial number are determined to wage a jihad against this nation.

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RELATED ARTICLES:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1161355/DAILY-MAIL-COMMENT-Why-indulge-enemy-within.html

Why do we indulge the enemy within?

Daily Mail, leader, 13 March 2009

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http://www.express.co.uk/ourcomments/view/86755

Inside Afghanistan a British civil war is gathering pace

by Leo McKinstry, Daily Express, 27 February 2009

British troops in the blood-stained wastelands of Afghanistan are [...] confronted by a new enemy: home-grown jihadists who were reared in Britain and have travelled to Afghanistan

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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/exclusive-army-is-fighting-british-jihadists-in-afghanistan-1631347.html

‘We are fighting British jihadists in Afghanistan’ (*)

Top Army officers reveal surge in attacks by radicalised Britons

by Kim Sengupta, Independent, 25 February 2009

(*) front page headline of the print version

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http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2009/03/07/miliband-the-security-situation-in-pakistan-is-fuelling-terrorist-plots-in-britain/

Miliband: The security situation in Pakistan is fuelling terrorist plots in Britain

Foreign Secretary David Miliband commented on the situation in Pakistan during an interview on BBC Radio 4 on Friday 6 March.

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dandelion salad
Homepage: http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/britain-is-now-harbouring-a-menacing-enemy-within/

Additions

ADDITION

13.03.2009 19:25

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/concoughlin/4980955/Britain-is-fighting-a-war---and-we-are-too-soft-on-our-enemies.html

Britain is fighting a war – and we are too soft on our enemies

Too little action is being taken by the authorities against hostile Muslims, says Con Coughlin.

by Con Coughlin, Daily Telegraph, 13 March 2009

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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article5891253.ece

Tolerance and the intolerant

The Islamist protesters against British soldiers espouse a perverse ideology and abuse the liberties of a free society; the liberal State is entitled to defend itself

Times, leading article, 12 March 2009

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dandelion salad

ADDITION 2

14.03.2009 14:39

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/luton-the-enemy-within-1643089.html

Luton: the enemy within?

by Jerome Taylor and Mark Hughes, Independent, 12 March 2009

dandelion salad

Comments

Hide the following 8 comments

We are the Civilised West

13.03.2009 21:07

Says it all really. The fact that the vast majority of the British population reads this messianic crap goes to show how stagnant so called civilized societies have remained. Bollocks to the press. Bollocks to the returning heroes

Hate Mail

incredible

13.03.2009 22:31

I'm not easily shocked, but this is sickening. I don't read these papers, and find it hard to credit that they actually get away with printing this shite.

Thank you for bringing this to my attention

fred

The silent majority?

13.03.2009 23:26

It is strange to be both a pacifist and an atheist, and to find myself agreeing with Muslim fundamentalists....but this is the strange state that I find myself within. I agree with the protests, and am glad someone had the guts to go about doing it.

Krop

remember the "poverty draft"

14.03.2009 10:27

although i am 100% against the war, and against the racist headlines of the gutter press, we've got to be a little nuanced in our inderstanding of the situation. A huge number of soldiers are just kids from working class backgrounds who saw the opportunity to get out of their shitty dead-end council estate and see a bit of the world while getting paid for it. this is especially true with the non-officer ranks.

a lot of these people don't know anything better, and have had pro-army, pro-war opinions battered and brainwashed into them by the gruelling training programme the army gives its new recruits. as radicals we need to be able to distance ourselves somewhat from the pro-war/anti-war divide and look at the underlying social and economic factors that lead people to join the armed forces in the first place. we can wag our fingers and moralise all we want, but that will never get us anwhere.

remember, it was soldiers and sailors who kicked off the Russian revolution, and although it didn't turn out too well (understatement of the century!!), the reason the Bolsheviks won was down to gaining widespread support from young working class kids who saw no other option than to join the armed forces, just like many of our own soldiers in the UK. of course, they also had weapons training, which was useful :-D

i'm not saying that we should "support our troops" on brutal imperialist missions like the war in Iraq, but we need to look beyond the black-and-white moralistic issues, and scrape below the surface to the real factors that encourage people to join the army in the first place.

bill

This is fascist Britain

14.03.2009 13:12

This is fascist Britain. These are popular “news”papers read by the english who love this open fascism because it gives them open season to abuse Arabs and Muslims, which you now hear them doing like dumb stupid sheep all the time.

maha

good quote from the Independent article

14.03.2009 16:05

I think this quote is very perceptive. Most soldiers are just brainwashed cannon fodder that the government has recruited, mostly from poor backgrounds, to do their dirty work for them. If politicians had to lead the troops into battle themselves, I'm sure we would see a lot less wars.

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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/luton-the-enemy-within-1643089.html

(quoting a Inayat Bunglawala, of the Muslim Council of Britain)

"I understand that they are against the war in Iraq and so are the overwhelming majority of Muslims, but we realise that the group to protest against is the Government, not the army. The soldiers just go where they are told. It was not them who started the war."
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I can understand the anger of the protesters (despite being an atheist who despises religion) but it's probably tactically better (though more difficult in practice) to target politicians and military top brass. They should still be entitled to do their protest though - I think the government get an added benefit here by introducing the idea that freedom of expression isn't sacrosant - they can then apply the same principle to other areas of dissent.

Let's face it, almost everyone hates the government, so by going for that angle you get a good thin end of the wedge to start pushing anti-war views. Most people know of some poor sod in the army though. The government and their media lackeys like to push the idea that being anti-war means you hate individual soldiers. Some of them may be nasty racist little shits with no qualms are killing people, but most ex-soldiers I have met are quite pleasant and cynical about how they have been used by the government.

anon

Davies: Change the law to make it an offence to abuse British soldiers on parade

15.03.2009 12:54

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2319808.ece

excerpts from: Ban rant at forces

The Sun, 14 March 2009

A Tory MP is demanding new laws to stop hate-filled demos aimed at British soldiers.

David Davies wants to amend religious hatred laws to make it an offence to abuse squaddies on parade. [...]

Mr Davies said: “Anyone can hurl insults at soldiers without recourse.”

dandelion salad

It's our right!

15.03.2009 13:39

Like it or not, this 'war of terror' is illegal, therefore it is our civil right and civic duty to protest against the armed forces who are in effect, commiting war crimes in our name by following illegal orders from a corrupt government.

black hood